The present invention relates to an identification method, as well as an apparatus therefor for identifying various types of articles such as ID cards of pharmacists or medicine cartridges in a medicine packaging machine.
Conventionally, as the method for identifying various types of articles such at cards, there has been commonly used a method where identification information like individual numbers, position and other information magnetically preliminarily recorded on an identification object is read with a magnetic head. As a more convenient method, also available is a method as shown in FIG. 12. An identification object 41 is provided with an identification pattern 43 composed of a plurality of points (ten points in the figure), which are given by a combination of the presence or absence of identification holes 42. A number of identification sensors 46 corresponding to the number of points of the identification pattern 43 each comprise a light transmitter 44 and a light receiver 45 located opposite each other. When the identification object 41 is inserted between the light transmitters 44 and the light receivers 45, the identification object 41 is identified depending on whether or not the light receivers 45 receive light transmitted from the individual light transmitters 44.
However, with the conventional method shown in FIG. 12, since the number of identification sensors 46 needs to correspond to the number of points of the identification pattern 43, a large installation space is required and necessarily involves a high cost. Furthermore, incomplete insertion of the identification object 41 would make it difficult for the light receivers 45 to receive light from the light transmitters 44, causing such problems as unidentifiable or misidentified cases.